Geek Chic | A Matter of Fractals

Admirers of Marc Newson’s streamlined furniture and crisp industrial design may be surprised to see his latest creation — a strikingly ornate diamond and sapphire necklace he conceived for Boucheron, the French jewelry house. The one-of-a-kind “Julia” necklace, which is being introduced at a couture-week party in Paris tomorrow evening, was inspired by Newson’s obsession with fractals — geometric shapes that can be subdivided into smaller versions of themselves, specifically the Julia Sets of fractals discovered by Gaston Julia in the early 1900s. “Fractals are fascinating, complex and rich,” Newson says, “and gemstones really lend themselves to exploiting their beauty.” The scientifically-spawned sparkler contains around 2,000 paved stones and took the company’s craftspeople 1,500 hours to realize using rapid-prototyping technology and a minimal three-prong setting, so the stones appear to float on the wearer’s throat. One thing that won’t be floating, however, is the price tag. “I wasn’t thinking luxury at all, but the technical rigorousness of the piece, as well as the sheer number of stones that went into it will probably make this one of the most expensive necklaces Boucheron’s ever made.” Go to boucheron.com.